Board of Directors

Erlette Upshaw, Treasurer she/her

Erlette is the Executive Director of Coos Elderly Services, Inc. located in Coos Bay, OR serving the elderly and people with disabilities of all ages throughout Coos and Curry Counties, along with the western part of Douglas County.  Coos Elderly Services is a financial non-profit organization created in 1991 to assist people with managing their finances when they are unable to.  Prior to working for Coos Elderly Services, she worked at Goodwill Job Connections assisting and coaching people on how to develop their job searching skills and finding employment in Coos and Curry County.  She also managed staff in both Coos Bay and Brookings.  Her family relocated to Coos Bay from San Diego, CA in 2018 where she worked as a manager at San Diego Gas & Electric for 24 years.  She developed her skills in marketing, project management, contracts, and finances.

Erlette has many years of experience serving as a board member to holding positions as a board of directors officer while in San Diego.  She served as a board member and Vice President for a school district and President for a school for two years.  She was recently Secretary and Treasurer for a church in Coos Bay for three years. She is currently the Chief Financial Officer for Giving For A Purpose, a non-profit organization, in San Diego which benefits the health and well-being of children.  She is active in her local community by providing financial aid through grants for the Hispanic/Latinx population and coordinating church events and fundraisers by cooking and serving meals.

Jamie Jones, MPH, Board Chair she/her

Jamie is currently the Director of Applied Learning in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. Previous to her current role, she was in nonprofit management as the Director of Operations for Disability Rights Oregon. Before her time in nonprofit management, she was in academic public health and research, where her work ranged from instructing undergraduate health courses, advising undergraduate health studies students, coordinating the Portland Bridges to Baccalaureate Program at Portland State University (PSU), and managing Oregon Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program research activities at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Jamie also worked on the Oregon MPH Program re-accreditation report to the Council on Education for Public Health. Jamie has worked with Upstream Public Health; in 2015, as a Research Manager on Health Equity Impact Analysis on Tobacco Retail Licensing and in 2021 as a Program and Project Manager. Jamie earned a Master’s of Public Health in Health Promotion from PSU. Jamie is a white, queer cisfemme and lives in Portland with her girlfriend and roughly 40 plants. They hope to adopt a puppy in the near future. 

Quete Capuia, Director

Bio coming soon!

Katharine Ryan, Director she/her

Katharine's professional background includes policy, advocacy, and direct service work focused primarily in housing and food in Oregon and Washington. Along the way she has worked for multiple state legislators, earned her MPH in Health Promotion from Portland State University, and currently works at the PacificSource Community Solutions Lane County CCO.

Katharine was raised in Eugene, Oregon and after travels up and down the I-5 corridor returned home in 2017. She lives with her partner, kiddo, two cats, two ducks, two chickens, and a beautiful yard and garden. She identifies as a white, queer, cis woman, a mother, a daughter, a partner, and a deeply caring friend. She is continually working to learn and act on undoing the deep systems of oppression in her personal and professional lives.

Derek Smith, Secretary he/him

Derek has MSW and MPH training and is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. He has long worked to engage communities around paths to promoting health, shining light and truth against the bad deeds of the Tobacco Industry, and saving lives through upstream efforts to turn around the #1 cause of death and disability across the nation. He is a dedicated public health professional presently serving as a Policy Analyst Senior at Multnomah County Health Department. 

Derek loves dogs and cats and pigs and gardening and writing poetry. He swims and kayaks for fun and to resist the sands of time. Babies are a favorite thing for Derek to ooh and aaah about. He has long worked alongside communities of color, tribal communities, youth groups, LGBTQ folks, and people living with mental illness in his work. Derek is devoted to engagement with person-first approaches and wholly committed to advancing the best possible health rooted in community solutions, particularly those who are harmed by the ongoing white supremacist centering of institutions.